. >>> and to our other major story, the looming fiscal cliff. lawmakers worked through the night to try to reach an agreement. >> without a deal, taxes are set to go up for just about every american. tahman bradley joins us from washington with more on the stalemate. tahman? >> reporter: john and paula, good morning. tension is growing here in washington, after weekend talks failed to lead to a deal. if there is no breakthrough today, the country will go over the cliff. talks continue but this morning, there is still no deal. >> we'll have further announcements, perhaps, at 11:00 in the morning. i certainly hope so. >> reporter: republicans and democrats negotiated all weekend, with the hope of passing legislation to protect most people from a massive tax hike. >> our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle class families do not go up that would hurt our economy badly. >> reporter: there was optimism about deal over the weekend, when the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, made an offer. that ended when harry reid